‘Prosperity Is Already Flowing,’ Trade Minister Oduwole Defends Tinubu’s Economic Policies

Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Jumoke Oduwole, has said that the gains of the administration of President Bola Tinubu’s economic policies are already visible in the country.

Oduwole, who stated this on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Wednesday, said that though the removal of the fuel subsidy in 2023 came with an economic consequence, it was necessary.

“Where we’re coming from is like four decades, and we had to fix that foundation. There is no way you can plant new seeds in bad soil and expect anything to germinate, and the President said it from day one, ‘I have to do these reforms. It’s going to be painful. Stay with me.’

“But Nigerians don’t want to hear the statistics. I can reel out to you the macroeconomic removal of subsidy, making sure that inflation — it’s come down — making sure that foreign exchange stability… We forget where we’re coming from,” she said.

The minister said that the foundation had already been laid to improve the lives of Nigerians.

“The foundation has been laid, empirically verifiable. But Nigerians, now, is the cost of living high? Are people in pain?

“Yes, we are also Nigerians, and we know that this is the time you have to just stay through, and it’s already coming down. Prosperity is already flowing,” she said.

Oduwole, however, said that nobody in the world could say that the Nigerian economy had not been stabilised.

She said Nigeria had been able to withstand global economic shocks.

“I would say President Tinubu has had the courage; he has the understanding to take on economic reforms, and if you look at what he promised — his number one promise in 2023 was to stabilise this economy.

“Four out of the eight pillars of the Renewed Hope Agenda are centred on the Nigerian economy. Did he deliver? Even if it is 50 per cent, it’s a pass mark, not to talk of what he did with infrastructure,” the minister said.

“Yes, we have a lot more to do. If you hear how he spoke to us at FEC concerning power. If you hear how he actually charges all of us, like we don’t even have the luxury of not delivering on the assignment that he has given us to do,” she added.

Asked what the Tinubu administration had done about the one million ICT jobs it promised to create in 2023 within 24 months and the major reduction in youth unemployment it promised Nigerians, Oduwole said the Ministry of Communication and Digital Economy had provided a significant number of jobs in the ICT sector.

She also said that the government had recorded other gains.

“Nigeria won the jollof rice war for the first time,’ she noted.

The minister said the administration has encouraged entrepreneurs to export their products and services.

She stated that Tinubu had encouraged Nigerians to produce what they consume.

She also said that the NELFUND, exponential increase in infrastructure, and the consumer credit programmes would stand out as some of his legacies that touch the lives of every Nigerian.

“Mr. President has done what he knows and believes is right for Nigeria,” she said. “And I believe, based on evidence – empirical – that posterity and history will be extremely kind to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.”